Assigning Goals is important whether you are a Business Unit Head, Manager, Account Manager/Executive or Client Partner yourself.

1. Have Business Development Mindset
2. Focus Revenue Growth and Exceeding Revenue Targets
   e.g. growth on base of existing account(s), new logos acquired individually or with Sales Team collaboration
3. Pay attention to Account Margins (AM%), Contribution Margins (CM%) Targets and have plans to improve AM%, CM% continuously
4. Set Individual Goals, Commitments, Stretch Targets
5. Develop/Build Pipeline – build up your pipeline of opportunities, qualify out or work on closing that pipeline one stage at the time
6. Proactive Prospecting and Lead Generation e.g. Campaigns, SalesNavigator, Warm intros from existing stakeholders, etc.
7. Build, Expand your Relationships, Network
8. “One Team” Account Thinking – Account Manager (AM), Delivery Manager (DM), Sales or Business Development Manager (SM, BD), Digital Sales, Industry Solution Practice (ISP), Competency Center (CC), Operations, Revenue Group, etc. Orchestration of all different roles that touch Account is of utmost importance and Account Manager (AM) is responsible to Orchestrate.
9. Account Planning – It’s your business plan. Plan the Work, Work the Plan. Collaborate with Sales Managers (SM), Delivery Managers (DM), Operations, Finance, etc. to align/draft. Don’t forget, your activities should lead to results and not just doing activity for the sake of activity.
10. Delivery – Excellence in Technical Delivery, making sure we deliver on the promise. Delivery, just like Quality is inherent, it’s non negotiable.
11. Keep Operations, Account Hygiene in order

As you head into the Deal Review meeting with your colleagues, management, executives, here are a few quick reminders in order to be prepared for the meeting.

• Proposal – in PPT format for example, what we showed or showing to the customer
• Ratecard – have it available
• Resource Plan – show in Excel
• P&L Analysis – have it done
• Know as much about a deal checklist as possible – 5 Rights, Make It Right (MIR) – Deal Lifecycle
• Re-read SOW, MSA – Before heading into the meeting
• “Term Sheet” – Summary of Terms in a Table Format, Negotiation Points (e.g. COLA, Limitation of Liability, Discounts, Volumes, Termination Clause, etc.) See Example here.
• Strategy, Approach – Prepare tactics, strategy, starting point, next step in Pricing, Discounts, Negotiations in general
• File Share – Consolidate (and keep updated) all of the materials in Dropbox (or OneDrive) in the “Output” folder

Building an Account Plan is one of the most important planning exercises that you need to do. It’s a living document intended to be continuously updated and collaborated on with your team.

Outline:

• Company’s Roadmap, Vision, Strategy
• Industry Challenges, Pain Points
• What is customer’s business  e.g. their business, how they make money, etc.
• What are their main problems they’re trying to solve  e.g. so we can suggest solutions, positioning paper, proposal, briefing, etc. align to that
• Heat map of Relationships
• Communication Plan and Company’s Executive Alignment
• Existing Engagement(s)/Project(s) Overview e.g. what business problems, scenarios being solved/addressed, what outcomes delivered, what technologies underpin projects
• Win Team Structure
• Wallet Share Analysis
• Competitors – Who, What they do, Where are they engaged, their Wallet Share
• Partnerships – Do we know our partners, do we sync e.g. MSFT, Adobe, etc.
• Technology Landscape (also, any IP, Accelerator re-use or leverage)
• SWOT
• Strategy e.g. Build account structure, diversify mix of services, deepen relationships
• Company’s Solution Practices, Technologies – mapping to customer needs
• Campaigns to execute
• 5 Quarter Action Plan Listing Timing of Key Components e.g. 12 mo or 24 mo Revenue Plan
• Commitments, Focus Areas, Top Priorities e.g. 2 Digital Engagement  Wins, 2 Cloud Wins
• Pipeline
• Strategic Hiring Plan – put a plan together on roles, investments that you need to make by certain time. e.g. what does the team look like by end of year.
• Action Plan and Next Steps to Achieve objectives

It’s Your Plan to Own:

• It’s YOUR Business Plan, not just Exec Summary (Current Template), add more to Appendix, it’s a Living document
• Collaborate with Sales Managers, Delivery Managers, Ops, Solutions Architects, etc. to put plan together
• Read 10K, Annual Report, CEO’s Annual Letter to Shareholders
• Use Case: Use it to brief pursuit teams when you leverage them for pursuits, exec meetings, etc.
• Customer Overview (Revenue, Locations, Wallet Share, # of employees, Competitors, Technology landscape), see above checklist
• Include Project Descriptions
• Outline Top 3-5 Strategic Goals, OKRs you are driving (e.g. Cloud, BI, etc.)
• Communication Plan with Customer
• Contribution Margin (CM) improvement plan
• Account Org Structure (Sales Managers, Delivery Managers, Operations, etc.)
• Customer Heatmap and Target Names of Customer Contacts we are going after
• Key Projects we did for the customer (Case Study Format)
• Clear TODO’s slide with Next Steps, Owners

Applying the concept of 5 Rights and simple checklists to create, shape and validate your Deal is Right.

There is a lot to consider when shaping a deal. Review the items on the list, you don’t have to follow it all but it may give you a framework to navigate as it relates to your deals.

Here are key pillars to consider and details behind:

• Right Solution – make it the right solution to the problem statement, right scope, approach, architecture, deliverables
• Right Deal – do you have the right deal that makes sense financially to you, is it estimated correctly, is it profitable, stakeholder approved, do terms & conditions of the contract align with your expectations and risk profile
• Right Team – make it right with the right team and leadership to deliver. Are you working with the right customer, stakeholder with the approved budget, authority, need, timeline (BANT)
• Right Time – does the timeline work and make sense, do you have everything available to start, finish on time
• Right Location – are you delivering services out of the right location, do you have necessary perimeter security, checks in place if you’re working with regulated industries
• Right Communication, Team Work – yes #6 instead of 5, but it’s inherent to the overall Deal Lifecycle. Do you have the right communication plan, governance, clear ownership and roles & responsibilities.

Download checklist template – 5 Rights – Deal Worksheet